Though originally designed as the center channel of a 5.1 - MicroMain27 surround sound system, the MicroMain26 took on a life of its own as a stereo pair. The MicroMain27 set a new standard in professional studios, and the Barefoot MicroMain26 gets even closer to perfection. A repositioned ring radiator tweeter and extra midrange driver (borrowed from the MM12) has truly added a magic touch to the MicroMain26.

The Barefoot MicroMain26 is a 4-way active system with 6 drive units housed in sealed enclosures spanning 30Hz to 45kHz with vanishingly low distortion, breathtaking dynamic range and ultra-fast transient response. The ring radiator tweeter is incredibly detailed and produces very wide dispersion out to its highest frequencies. The 2.5” aluminum cone midrange is housed in a cutting edge 3D printed waveguide enclosure. The 5.25″ woofers feature a phalanx of advanced technology, yielding upper bass and lower midrange detail that rivals any driver on the planet. Barefoot has teamed up with the brilliant Bruno Putzeys of Hypex to develop the powerful and completely transparent amplifier stage used in every Barefoot monitor. Melding the system together is a groundbreaking new DSP crossover that took Thomas Barefoot more than 4 years to develop. With beautifully designed high end converters and cutting edge proprietary filtering techniques the Barefoort MM26 sound stage is seamlessly coherent and deeply revealing.

MEME™ Technology: Despite the advantages of high resolution monitors, Thomas Barefoot realizes that many engineers still use their NS10M’s † and mix cubes as secondary references. These Barefoot Sound speakers have long traditions and people find them familiar and useful for focusing in on certain aspects of their mix. However, crowding one’s console with those extra boxes degrades the sound field of the primary reference monitors. Not to mention, they are no longer manufactured, they need amplifiers, cable runs, and they consume more studio space. The solution is to make the Barefoot MM26 sound and translate like those speakers. With the turn of a knob one can switch from the Barefoot Sound MicroMain26′s brutally revealing “Flat” response to the warmer and sweeter “Hi-Fi” setting, generically emulating the sound of some high end consumer audio gear. More specifically the “Old School” setting closely emulates the sound of the NS10M nearfield, while the “Cube” setting emulates the mid-centric sound of classic mix cubes The idea is not to perfectly replicate every subtle quirk of these venerable old speakers. That would be impossible. But the Barefoot Sound MM26 can capture the essence of how they behave and translate, modeling their frequency, phase and transient responses, dynamic compression and even specific distortion components. If you know how to work on these speakers you will feel very comfortable working on the new Barefoot Sound MM26′s emulation settings.